The system might fail you, but don't fail yourself.

Verity velvet smock dress: c/o Boohoo. Leather jacket: The Kooples. Leather bowling bag: £43, Marks and Spencer. Anna boots: Topshop (old). Watch: gift, Rotary. Necklace: vintage. Polkadot tights: free, American Apparel. Lipstick: Topshop "Really Ruby". Nails: Deborah Lipmann "Razzle Dazzle" on Natural Collection "Black Cherry".

I am forever moaning about my lack of goth phase. I tried to convince myself that I was a scene kid in year ten, but realistically I went as far as neon eyeshadow and that was it (fortunately). Recently however I find myself being drawn to black clothing, and it doesn't look like this chapter is ending any time soon, particularly when Hallowe'en is only a couple of weeks away. That, or I'm spending too much time reading Camilla's blog, you pick. Last August I went along to boohoo's christmas preview and I've somehow only just got around to spending the voucher that I was kindly treated to on the day. I'm not the world's biggest fan of online shopping as I rarely know what I want specifically and find the pages of stock overwhelming (give me a rail to sift through any day!), so I narrowed things down to a much more manageable "black velvet" selection and came up trumps with this bad boy. Add a leather jacket, my new day bag (which my camera fits in, can I get a hell yeah?), and a slick of red lipstick on an abnormally good make-up day and I was ready to face the world, even if it were a only a trip to town with Danielle for wetherspoons burgers and window shopping - it's the small things.

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Tonight make it magnificent.

Cropped pale blue jumper: £10, Primark. Blouse: £13.50, Miss Selfridge (old). Joni jeans: £30, Topshop. Anna boots: £76.50, Topshop. Socks: Primark (part of pack). Holiday bag: gift, Cath Kidston. Lipstick: MAC Ravishing.

This time last week I was on a train (the novelty of that mode of transport wore of a long, long time ago) heading northwards to visit Claire, Gem, Maria, Sarah and Emma in Birmingham. I can't say I've explored the city too much in my many times visiting as I somehow always end up in Selfridges and the Mailbox, but what I have seen makes me want to find out more about the rest of it. The above photos were taken by Claire just outside the grounds of the cathedral, and I added the typical touristy photo of the town hall - you can't complain about its architecture at all! As I knew we'd be doing a fair amount of wandering around the city, I thought I'd wear a sensible outfit (for once), donning my trusted Topshop anna boots, joni jeans (which I'm actually less than impressed with regarding wear, has anyone else had issues with them once they've been washed?), a cheaper and purposefully less fluffy version of that Topshop jumper, and my "bag that everything fits in" which I've been using since I got it for my birthday nearly two years ago, perfect for carrying pyjamas, playsuits and, um, vodka.

We spent the day wandering round the town centre, before calling into GBK for burgers (come on, we are bloggers) and a catch up. Sadly Emma and Sarah had to leave us after the meal to do important grown-up things like sleep, but the rest of us returned to Snobs for a night of dancing on broken glass and requesting Blondie. Leaving the next morning (read: afternoon) was made substantially better with nachos and orange juice, and I didn't even have any annoying passengers on my train home! This weekend is being spent a little closer to home, as I've just spent the morning making triangular sandwiches ready for a DIY afternoon tea. Thug life, right?

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Home is where the heart is, and I gave it to you in a paper bag.

Penny Lane sign: c/o Out There Interiors. Two-tone playsuit: £39, Miss Selfridge.

As long time readers of my blog are well aware, I left my university city just over four months ago. The time since (minus the graduation ceremony, of course!) has been spent mainly in Essex, with trips to Paris, the Lake District, Birmingham, and Oxford taking up a fair amount of my time, not to mention the heinous amount of money I've spent getting to London and back. Although it all looks like a lark, the photos I upload don't quite reflect the time I've spent adjusting to life back at home and the inevitable job hunt that undergraduates think is never going to happen, but sneaks up on you before you get your rent deposit back. My main group of university friends are all off doing various things, which I love getting updates on via facebook; one's still in Liverpool (jealous!), one has a placement at a school, one has just started her MA, and the other is working hard in preparation for starting hers next year. I hit them with a bit of a bombshell last week (it means I've had to cancel my trip up there next month!), and it's about time I wrote a blog post about it, as it will have a real impact on how often I'll post, and the location of everything when I do: I'm moving to Germany.

I signed a contract saying that I'll be working with STYLIGHT for sixth months from early November, so I'll be relocating to their Munich offices next month. I've got a lot to sort out before I book my flights, which is more than a little daunting, but I'm sure it'll be worth the stress. If any of you have any tips for moving abroad, particularly München/Germany, then I would be really happy to hear them, but I've been chatting a lot to my friend who lived in Stuttgart on his year abroad and to Kavita who's currently out there and both have been the most reassuring sources of comfort I could hope for. I hope there won't be much of an impact on my blog, but it'll certainly be a change from Essex's fields, and Liverpool's brick walls! I'm more than a little bit excited, if nervous, but I'm sure I'll be back before you know it. Now all I need to do is find somewhere to live...

PS, I picked the above two pieces to highlight "home": my first year accommodation in Liverpool was a five minute walk from Penny Lane of Beatles fame (I picked this sign, kindly sent to me by Out There Interiors who sell everything from amazing lamps like Caroline's to stuff for your garden. I, of course, went for something wholly impractical), and the playsuit has become my go-to night out piece (I'm wearing it tonight!), which is something Essex is pretty well-known for.

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Don't try to hide it.

Denim jacket: £63, NW3 by Hobbs, Vintage Wrangler jeans: c/o Brag Vintage. T-Shirt: free, American Apparel. Leopard print boots: £27, Topshop (similar here). Bally bag: £9, vintage. Belt: 20p, charity shop. Watch: gift, Rotary. Necklaces: elsie belle, vintage, Topshop. Lipstick: Topshop Really Ruby.

Well, if your front garden overlooked this, could you pass up the opportunity to use it for outfit photos? Admittedly, walking along the river felt like we were in the middle of a wind tunnel, but, messy hair aside, it's a nice change to my last set out outfit photos. Making like Charlie, I took my Brag Vintage jeans out for a spin in East London, as we headed a little bit further down the Thames to see Everything Everything at one of Nokia's Lumia Live Sessions. I've seen them before, but ironically the much bigger city hosted the more intimate gig in Trinity Buoy Wharf. Getting there by clipper from London Bridge (certainly not something you do every day), Sabby and I bumped into Lucy and her pals before heading to the front to see EE whack their falsetto out like no other, and making sure to get a few photos on the Lumia 820, which seems to have instagram filters as standard - making for more acceptable selfies, am I right? We were guided back home by the light of the O2 (surely I'm not the only one who still calls it the Millennium Dome?) and a certain pair of golden arches, content with a pretty much perfect evening combination of cocktails, live music, and good company. Nothing can beat a good post-gig buzz, and I've got two weeks till Arctic Monkeys, then another till Knife Party, so not long to wait for my next one!

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Meet The Milk.

Although music festivals make for some pretty damn amazing locations for outfit photos, there is obviously the music part of the weekend to contend with. There were plenty of artists on my "to see" list that I managed to tick off (I'm talking Mark Ronson and Benga), ones that I will see as many times as it is legally possible (erm, hi Fratellis and crème de chèvre, I'm not creepy, promise), and then there's one that I tweeted about six months ago to ask if they'd be playing the festival again. I planned to see locals The Milk for the third time the moment they were added to the line up, and was lucky enough to sneak backstage to have a chat with frontman Rick and lead guitarist Dan before they graced the Brownstock stage on the Saturday afternoon.

I first saw you at Brownstock a few years ago, and you've been back a few times, is it the local crowd you come back for?

We played it twice as an unsigned band, and four years ago, after a promotor saw us at a gig in Chelmsford, we came back with a record contract. It helps that we live locally, of course, and homecoming gigs are always going to have the best crowds. We're friends with Mat [DJ/Promotor] and he really looks after the artists, which is a bit different to V, the bigger local festival. We've played V twice, and the atmosphere is so different; it's amazing to come and play a homecoming gig to a massive crowd with the added credibility of playing a bigger festival, but when it comes to the big versus boutique festival debate, we firmly side with the underdog. It might surprise you to hear that one of the best gigs we ever played was in Hull! Brownstock's great because you get your friends and family hanging around backstage, and it's my nephew's first festival. V's good, we used to rent a flat in central Chelmsford and could hear it from the back garden, but Brownstock is a real contender.

Do you ever change your set for a local crowd?

Not really; we play what we want to perform, which is a mixture of new and old stuff, because the crowd's not going to be interested in listening to something if you're not into playing it to begin with. It's 45 minutes of playing to both fans and people who've never heard of you before, so it's more like a musical experience Telling a story? Nah, more like working your way through a musical piece - ranging from fast tracks to ballads. It's a set, not a story, but there is definitely a beginning, middle, and end.

If you're playing new tracks, will your next album be similar to the first? I love the gapless nature of "Tales from the Thames Delta", which joins tracks with Greater Anglia voiceovers and ring tones, any intentions of doing more of the same?

It's still the same kind of sound, but we're not going gapless again. That first album was a bit like a DJ mix of everything one after another, but now we're making moments. That technique was drawn from the soul music we listened to a lot at the time, and the idea behind it was that you listen and you keep going through the whole album - a bit like a live show, really. It maintains that level of energy throughout. The recording was pretty old school, we did it all in one take rather than play separately. We did it in this medieval barn with stone walls, resulting in a sound that isn't too clinical or sanitised; our producer did say it was full of "happy mistakes" and we loved the little imperfections. It's more a show of being musicians than getting it perfect every time.

And, as musicians, does that mean you don't get the festival experience any more?

We played Glastonbury on the Friday this year, and just said that we weren't going home. After finishing our gig on the Left Field stage we had the rest of the weekend to explore the rest of it - the perfect Glastonbury experience. Billy Bragg had asked us to play, and that's a pretty good start, so we made the most of our weekend.

The Milk's first album is currently available on iTunes (and is one of my most played), and click here for more of my Brownstock coverage.

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Be like the bluebird who never is blue.

Closet mirror print dress: c/o Stylistpick. Denim jacket: aunt's. Satchel: Brit-Stitch. Shoes: mum's. Necklace: vintage. Lipstick: Topshop Mischief (sadly discontinued).

Do you ever put on an outfit and think of a blogger immediately? Well, I do. Every time I wear my circle skirt I think of j rox, something that involves clashing colours is certainly a Lucy speciality, Carven brings Kristabel to mind, and I always remember Amy's smock dress phase/obsession when I put mine on. When I opened the box this dress was packed in, I immediately remembered Olivia's post, which I described to her as "the pastel Brighton one with the ladylike dress". I may not have been Brighton-bound for this post, but one afternoon trip to Hylands Park with my mum mid-September did mean that I had an excuse to wear something a little more fancy than my current jeans and t-shirt uniform, and I'm never one to pass up an opportunity to get dolled up (even if it is just for a cup of tea).

Tonight I'm headed to the wharves of East London for a gig (no surprise what I'll be wearing) as it's been far, far too long since I saw live music. The rest of the week will involve a lot of dancing as I pretend to be a fresher tomorrow and then get to see my best blogging chums this weekend in Birmingham. Come Sunday evening I'll be cowering beneath my duvet claiming all I need is a good book and a hot chocolate. Well, at least until I'm told otherwise.

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Stop the world I wanna get off with you.

Striped tee: £7, H+M. Shorts: £69, Carven via Cricket. Leather jacket: The Kooples. Boots: £25, Tesco. Navy panama hat: £26, Urban Outfitters. Necklaces: Elsie Belle and vintage. "Ship happens" temporary tattoo: c/o Fickle.

Navy, stripes, and leather? I really am taking this autumn dressing to heart. I wore this ensemble for a trip along the central line to meet Charlie (her blog is wonderful and full of impeccable styling, definitely worth a click through!) for a wander round the shops and a bite to eat, before a night in with several episodes of Gossip Girl, ice cream, and pink wine - all in all, I make that a good day!

You may have noticed something peeking out of my sleeves... Don't worry, I haven't actually got a tattoo as I can barely make my mind up for a week, let alone make a decision about something so permanent, but it's one of Fickle Tattoo's temporary offerings. Warning: they don't like being rubbed against leather (hence why mine's come off slightly), but we wore them out on Saturday night and I've been told that my friend's is still going strong. I got mine off completely with a little of my make up remover's persuasion, so there's nothing to stop you inking (or, erm, dampening your skin) up. And I have to quickly mention these boots as, on their first wear, I managed to walk a fair amount of soho, then a trip to Westfield without so much as a blister or sore ankle - not too shabby for a teeny £25, is it?

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